If you didn’t know this already Business Central is not going anywhere anytime soon. If you are still using Dynamics GP, you know that at some point, you will need to make the transition over to the new cloud-based ERP option from Microsoft. If you are looking to make the move but not straight away, what can you do now to prepare yourself for this move? In our latest blog article, we provide you with 4 things that your business can do now to ensure that you are ready for the move when it comes.
1 – Don't forget you can benefit from free Business Central licenses
Did you know that Dynamics GP users have access to Microsoft’s Bridge to Cloud 2 promotion? What this means is that you can get a 40% discount on Business Central licenses. Furthermore, Microsoft is also able to waive your Dynamics GP Enhancement Plan if your current Business Central subscription equals or exceeds your current Dynamics GP annual renewal cost. Put simply, you will hold both Dynamics GP and Business Central licenses at no extra cost to your business. This promotion is only valid for three years making it perfect to give you that extra time to make the move over to Business Central when you are ready.
2 – Cleanse your existing data
Never waste an opportunity to clean up data that you don’t need anymore. If you have been a Dynamics user for many years you will no doubts have countless out of date accounts and vendor information that is taking up vital space in your current system.
If you are going down the road of making the transition from Dynamics GP to Business Central, there is no better time than now for your team to assess the system, highlight any inaccurate data and start again with the new solution. Ensuring that you only have the most up to date datasets will help to improve both the speed and overall quality of your reporting.
3 – Assess your current business processes
As you transition towards moving to a new solution, you will understand that this provides a fantastic opportunity for you to assess your current business processes and highlight any that may be too manual or not working as good as they should be.
To put this into context with an example, let’s just say that you created your Chart of Accounts over 5 years ago. Maybe it was set up in the wrong way but your colleagues got used to using it in that way. Or perhaps it was set up based on a business model that no longer exists. Considering bringing your workarounds and inefficient processes to your new Business Central solution kind of seems pointless as you will be able to now take advantage of the new and improved Dimensional Chart of Accounts.
Therefore, why not pose the following questions to your team:
It is important to consider that implementing a new solution is the chance to start a fresh. Advantage can help you stay on course with that. It is best to have another pair of experienced eyes evaluating your processes which can prove to be extremely useful. Advantage can deliver full-scale evaluations tapping into our knowledge of working with hundreds of businesses all over the UK.
You may be setback at the cost of doing such an activity. However, a detailed business process review can help to highlight any processes that are very labour intensive and put forward new process changes in your new solution that will save you both money and time in the long run.
Our team of experts at Advantage can assess your business requirements today and help you think about where your business will go.
4 – Pick a timeline that suits your business
It is important to understand that any form of ERP implementation will require your team to invest time particularly when it comes to both training and testing. When you make the shift over to Microsoft products, the training will take less time due to people knowing it. However, don’t underestimate the fact that you will still need to invest time in this. Therefore, if you are short on employees, this could present you with your biggest challenge.
To help you with the above, we’ve put together some tips:
- Don’t organise your implementation if there are too many other internal projects in operation.
- Don’t organise your implementation around the holiday season.
- Don’t organise an implementation during your busiest times as a business.
Making the transition from Dynamics GP to Business Central
It is important to understand that moving from Dynamics GP to Business Central is not simply an upgrade but a new implementation altogether. To help with this, there are tools that can help you migrate data from GP to Business Central or connect data from GP to Business Central, which will speed up the process. This change will be much easier as it would be if you were making the migration from a non-Microsoft ERP solution.
The best thing about Business Central is the fact that you can get a complete cloud experience. Furthermore, you won’t have to worry about or pay for costly upgrades. As well as this, Business Central has a much easier integration with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft is always striving to improve the product regularly.
Next Steps?
Are you a business that is looking to stay on-prem with Dynamics GP for as along as you can? Or are you looking to make the move from Dynamics GP to Business Central? Regardless of which option you are looking to pick, Advantage is on hand to help you as best as we can. Reach out to us today to discuss your specific requirements.
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